Chapter 11
“Let’s Have You Cheat on Me” (2)
“Is that… what you wanted to say?”
“So? Is it possible?”
He had called her under the pretense of the carriage, but Violet stared at him blankly, as if meeting a stranger she somehow already knew.
If well-kept crows existed, maybe they would look like him. His neatly swept-back dark hair shimmered under the sunlight. Beneath it, his prominent brow and straight nose gave him a distinctly sharp, cold impression.
And then there was that strange sense of déjà vu from the very beginning…
Those eyes.
The eyes of a predator watching its prey. Silver irises, like finely polished sterling silver, dim yet laced with a chilling coldness, were fixed on her.
It was so eerie it matched exactly what she had seen in her dream.
Pressured by his overbearing gaze, Violet unconsciously shrank her shoulders.
And yet, instead of punishing her for stowing away on his carriage, he was talking about something as absurd as asking her to be his lover…
Should she be relieved?
Or perhaps… it had really been a dream after all.
She was indeed in need of money. He was a duke notorious not only for being a womanizer but also for being a ruthless moneylender. She had no intention of avoiding compensation, but she had no way of knowing how much he would demand.
Her grip tightened around her bag. The jewels inside clinked noisily without concern. Before coming here, she had packed some jewelry Dante had given her, just in case.
After a long silence, Violet finally forced out an answer.
“…That’s not possible.”
“It has to be possible.”
The duke smiled faintly, as if he had expected that answer. His sharp gaze soon drifted toward her bag, like a jeweler evaluating gemstones.
“Stowing away. Did you think you’d get away with just that?”
He let out a faint laugh.
Ah…
At that mocking tone, Violet was left stunned.
Now she had to accept it. This wasn’t a dream—she had truly met this man. She really did owe him something.
And yet, beneath the suffocating guilt, a thin thread of injustice slowly surfaced.
‘If he had just told me earlier…’
He had known all along but stayed silent, only now choosing to judge her.
But she had no right to protest. Wrong was wrong. And just like her parents, she was someone who couldn’t live comfortably in debt. Her head lowered slightly.
“I’m… truly sorry about that. It wasn’t intentional.”
A dark shadow fell over her bowed head. The man, now close enough to be right in front of her, gently lifted her chin.
Their eyes met in midair.
“Intentional or not, that doesn’t matter.”
“……”
“What matters is how much damage you caused.”
His thumb slowly brushed her chin. The faint touch against her lower lip was strangely ticklish.
His silver eyes scanned her face.
“…I’ll repay it, no matter how much it is. That’s only right.”
“Bold of you.”
“As for what you said earlier… I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”
“Wow. No fear at all.”
Satisfied, he let go of her and instead picked up her bag, shaking it lightly.
“Even if it were real jewels, it wouldn’t be enough—but this junk?”
The bag was so overstuffed that the clasps barely held shut. Real or fake, anything valuable had been stuffed inside.
Somehow, the worn-out bag reminded her of herself—barely surviving while drowning in debt. Her face grew hot.
“So this is your situation?”
His mocking smile and piercing question made her feel even more ashamed and cornered.
Then he picked up a sheet of paper from the desk and handed it to her. Violet’s eyes widened as she looked at it.
It was a carriage repair bill. And the amount was far beyond her expectations.
“Five million crowns? Even fines are only about two million…”
“So you did check the fines.”
“……”
“And yet you never once came to pay?”
She couldn’t answer.
She had intended to investigate, but she wasn’t even sure it had been his carriage. Her memory was hazy, and she had assumed it was a dream.
She had never intended to avoid paying. That was why she had gone to the carriage association to verify it.
Honestly, who would ever think they’d get tangled up with a high-ranking noble like this? And in such a complicated way?
The injustice she had suppressed rose again.
“I did try to find out in my own way… but I wasn’t feeling well, so my memory was unclear…”
“Ha. Lady.”
He cut her off sharply.
“I hate freeloader scum the most.”
His silver eyes sharpened.
“Especially those who say ‘I didn’t know’ or ‘it wasn’t my intention.’ That kind of freeloading is the worst.”
“……”
“There are no excuses when it comes to debt. Don’t you agree?”
His cold voice filled the room.
Violet held her breath. No matter how insulting his words were, the fact remained—she had to repay her debt.
Only then did she realize: his questions were never real questions. He hadn’t called her here to ask her opinion.
“Let me ask again. Will you be my mistress?”
It wasn’t a question. It was an order. There was no choice—only obedience.
And he was framing it as the only way to repay her debt.
“…Is that really the only way?”
“Probably.”
“I’ll repay the repair costs somehow. So that proposal… I’m sorry, but—”
“I don’t understand.”
Annoyed at being refused again, his lips curled into a thin, mocking smile.
“Why take the long way around when there’s an easier path?”
The humiliation of his condescending tone made something inside her tighten.
“What do you know…? You don’t know anything about how I’ve lived.”
She took a steady breath and looked straight at him.
“I have no intention of repaying my debt by becoming your mistress. Maybe it looks easy to someone like you, but it’s not for me.”
Reinhard found everything about her amusing.
From the moment she had stepped into this place until now.
Her tattered status mixed strangely with her lingering noble grace, forming a contradictory but interesting harmony.
Even her violet eyes—like a struggling violet blooming between cracks in stone pavement—kept drawing his attention.
The worn leather bag in her hands was no better. The edges were frayed from years of use.
And filled with useless trinkets she had brought as “preparation.”
Reinhard was certain.
Violet Hernandez had expected this situation to some extent.
In other words, she remembered him. And yet she had stayed silent until now, which only irritated him further.
If he hadn’t called her, she would have pretended nothing happened forever.
‘That damn Otero duke… asshole.’
Ah, right. She had insulted him too.
The more he looked at her, the more perfect she seemed for the Emperor’s arrangement.
She would play the role of his mistress in this fabricated affair. She needed enough nerve for that.
And eventually, she would face the princess.
That alone made her necessary. She had a history with the princess, and likely resentment as well. For Reinhard, she was also a way to strike back at Hugo Otero.
Moreover, as a consultant on affairs, she had likely seen countless cheating cases. She was the perfect candidate for a situation where amateur acting would be unacceptable.
‘Remember this: you must completely deceive Erika and make her break off the engagement herself.’
That was the Emperor’s condition—and warning.
And Reinhard agreed.
If he could end the forced engagement and escape the princess’s leash, he would do anything.
For his long-awaited revenge against his father.
He studied the woman in front of him.
She trembled like a hunted deer, yet her eyes did not waver.
People like her broke easily when pressured the right way.
The key was to make her move willingly.
‘Should I scare her… or seduce her?’
He slowly stepped closer.
The closer he got, the more she flinched.
Without realizing it, she was becoming more interesting.
Soon he moved behind her and leaned in close.
Her shoulders trembled. She pretended to stay calm, but her uneven breathing betrayed her.
He placed her bag on his wrist, then gently placed both hands on her shoulders.
Startled, she stiffened.
But he didn’t stop. His hands moved slowly from her shoulders down to her arms, wrists, and hands.
He placed the bag back into her frozen hands and whispered:
“Don’t you want revenge on the princess?”
A sweet trap disguised as temptation had already opened its jaws wide.
